The subject matter disclosed herein relates to appliances such as ovens, and more particularly to variable height slide-out racks for use in appliances such as ovens.
Oven racks are shelves that support food and/or cookware containing food inside the oven compartment while the food cooks or is otherwise stored in the oven. Traditional oven racks are known to be removable and adjustable in height. Typically, there are horizontal channels or other supports formed on the inside walls of the oven that hold the rack in place at a given height. There are typically supports at different height positions to allow for more than one rack to be in the oven supporting the food/cookware at the same time, and for the one or more racks to be repositioned in height.
Traditionally, to adjust the height of a rack, a consumer has to fully remove the rack from the oven compartment and then install it in a new rack height position. Depending on the location of the oven (e.g., a lower oven that is part of a freestanding range), this existing rack arrangement requires the consumer to bend down, pull the rack fully out of the oven, hold the rack, realign the rack, and then push the rack back into the oven. It is known that some oven racks can be as heavy as 15-22 pounds, making this existing rack removal and adjustment arrangement quite burdensome, not to mention time consuming as well.